The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

Venture funding isn’t real validation – market traction and continued profitability and revenues are. Venture capital affords companies the opportunity to hire hundreds or even thousands of people in one sweeping motion. Just because you can afford to hire, doesn’t mean that you should. Focus on Product Development First.

Early Stage 84

Early Stage Venture Capital Bootstrapping Pre-Money Valuation 84

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the best tricks I learned during our startup was a rule for deciding who to hire. And when businesspeople try to hire hackers, they cant tell which ones are good.Even other hackers have a hard time doing that. When we got real funding nearthe end of 1996, we hired a great CFO, who fixed everything retroactively.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

In brief, a cap acts to place a limit on the conversion price of a convertible note such that investors are guaranteed a minimum number of shares for their bridge loans if the startup does a priced equity round at a high pre-money valuation – “high” meaning above the cap, which is often a heavily negotiated term. (The

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 23, 2015

So whereas seed rounds five years ago may have been less than a million dollars on a pre-money valuation of three or four million, today''s seed is up and over a million and usually closer to two million, with post money valuations nearing $10 million. If you''re worried about the runway, try doing less things.

Post-Money Valuation 60

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Seed Money 60

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

There never has to be atime when you have no revenues. For example, a seed firmshould be able to give advice about how to approach VCs, which VCsobviously dont need to do; whereas VCs should be able to giveadvice about how to hire an "executive team," which is not an issuein the seed stage. So theyre going to raise $200,000.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

www.currentlyobsessed.com

MAY 28, 2010

Instead of “We are worth about $5m because we have done XYZ and we need to raise $1m, so let’s sell 20%&# it’s better to think about valuation as an output variable, like “Let’s raise $2mm and sell 33%, our (pre-money) valuation is therefore $4mm.&# Future value is key.

Valuation 42

Valuation Channel Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 42

Seeing Both Sides

NOVEMBER 30, 2008

For the last five years, it was not atypical for a high-quality Series A company that raised an initial round of capital priced at, say, $5 million on a $5 million pre-money valuation to hit a few important milestones (e.g., Where prices are really getting hammered in the VC-backed world is in Series B and Series C rounds.

Pre-Money Valuation 20

Pre-Money Valuation Portfolio Post-Money Valuation Valuation 20

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

In the late 90's, it wasn't surprising that companies with no revenue that were funded at 100 million dollar valuations didn't survive. I think I'm terrific at helping early stage teams by rolling up my sleeves and doing what's necessary--getting them hires, PR, product strategy help to find that market fit. Down from what?

Later Stage 99

Later Stage Down Round Pre-Money Valuation Early Stage 99